Introduction
A introduction to stories about Apple
Computer.
We are going to document a series of stories about
our work experiences at Apple Computer. From how we got hired through running
Apple's Cray supercomputer. We are going to use "T-shirts" as the mile stones
of our Journey. The dress code at Apple could be boiled down to you have to
were clothes. What that boiled down to was everyone wore blue jeans, tennis
shoes, and T-shirts. Often we would wear polo shits.
You see Apple issued T-shirts for
everything. Every project had a T-shirt. Every product shipped had a t-shirt.
Every group had a t-shirt. When we opened a new building the support people
helping people moved in wore a t-shirt that let everyone know that they were
available to help.
Most of these
stories will be about computer support. We will use the t-shirt to not only
tell a story about Apple but also describe a particular area of computer
support, what is important about that area, different ways of implementing and
managing it.
The time frame for these
stories is from 1984 through 1996. In this time frame we will see examples of
the wild culture of Apple and how things changed and almost
died.
Some of the stories we will
write about are:
How I got hired. No
t-shirt for this one but it shows the stupidity of internal recruiters and what
you should do as a manager to over come
them.
How to Install a Cray
supercomputer (in 2 months) and why would they want one in the first place.
T-shirt is know as "My other computer is a Cray".
What's in a name. Engineering
Computer Operations (ECO) (that's the t-shirt name as well) was more than a
name. How we made the "support" organization relavent to wild and crazy
Engineers of Apple.
How to design a
network (and the t-shirt for that).
How to support a network of 8600 nodes
in 43 buildings worldwide with only 8 people. The "FONTs"
t-shirt.
How to back up every Macintosh
in a MAN with no Human intervention. The Replicant t-shirt. This story takes
place over 3 years and explains how to market a software project. How to break
it up into pieces that you can sell it to management. Most importantly the
importance of "Vision" and how to apply it to a 3 year
plan.
Throughout these stories we will
break out and give Management observations that may be of use. We will talk
about continuous improve in theory and practice and what to do when efficency
cost savings confronts the realities of a real budget. No t-shirt for this on
either but it's a story that any manager of computer support needs to understand
to be successful.
We will try and keep
it light but informative.
So here we
go! Come along for the ride. As they said at Apple (as we worked our 80
weeks). The Journey is the Reward.
Posted: Sat
- August 13, 2005 at 09:57 AM